Jefferson and Democracy

Abstract

Jefferson and Democracy Michael Hardt (bio) Abstract The concept of democracy has become once again a problem. Many of the ideas and institutions that were thought to constitute democracy in the past have either withered or been revealed as corrupt. The crisis of the concept, though, makes it open to new possibilities. Jefferson's thought provides a powerful standpoint for reinventing democracy today. His thought helps clear the ground, first of all, by criticizing the undemocratic nature of "US democracy," particularly regarding the unequal divisions of property, the lack of freedom in the constitutional structure, and the lack of participation in the representational schema. Jefferson's thought, second and more importantly, also provides the tools for thinking and constituting the social, economic, and political bases for a democracy that goes well beyond what existed in his day or ours. What is needed for democracy is a notion of social equality that avoids the contradictions of identity and difference; a concept of economic equality that provides free and open access to productive property; a concept of freedom that gives priority to resistance over sovereignty; and a notion of republicanism that allows and fosters the active self-rule of the multitude. In all these regards, his thought provides a foundation and an inspiration for a new project of democracy. Jefferson remains, even today, a revolutionary. The core of Thomas Jefferson's political thought is a project for democracy—an endeavor perhaps more urgent and realizable in our day than it was two hundred years ago. And yet it is difficult to pronounce the word democracy today. It feels uncomfortable in the mouth. It tastes like ashes, as if the beautiful dreams it once contained have been burnt out by political reaction and cynicism. The most visible political projects today that fly the banner of democracy, in fact, really promote something closer to its opposite—war, authoritarian government, and social inequality. In most parts of the world when you hear the word democracy, it is a good idea to run in the other direction, because the bombs are sure to start falling soon. Since the term democracy has been so corrupted and abused, many contemporary political thinkers deem it better to avoid the word altogether. My view instead is that we should struggle over the concept rather than abandon it. Reading Jefferson, in fact, is one way to restore or reinvent the concept of democracy, recognizing again what democracy is and what it could be. Jefferson also provides us, before arriving at a concept of democracy, with a democratic critique of U.S. democracy. He argues, in other words, against the undemocratic character of many of the social forms and institutions that are commonly conceived as central to democracy in the United States: the Constitution and its schema of representation, the forms of authority that maintain social order, the social and political hierarchies that result from unequal property ownership, and much more. This critique of U.S. democracy, which is equally applicable today, is a first step in the demystification of the concept of democracy, stripping it of at least some of the distortions and corruptions it has suffered. Such demystification is necessary to clear the space for the articulation of a new concept. Jefferson, of course, occupies a particular position of authority for such an operation, since he not only played a central role in the early construction of the United States but also remains at the pinnacle of the official national pantheon. In the context of a national discourse [End Page 41] that still gives so much weight to the views and intentions of the framers and founders, the difference between Jefferson's democracy and that of the United States is particularly potent. One of the obstacles to reading democracy in Jefferson's political thought, however, is the mentality of U.S. exceptionalism that has plagued and continues to plague studies about the United States both within and outside the academy. For most of the twentieth century, the major currents of academic and popular writing about the United States (with notable exceptions, of course) reinforced the center of the tradition and often served as an arm of the project for U...

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